Northborough Legion Post 234 was up four runs after six innings, and its pitchers were dealing. But Grafton Hill Post 323 stormed back, scoring five runs in the top of the seventh inning. Northborough had one more chance to either tie or win in the bottom of the seventh, and thanks to pinch-hitter Drew Courtwright, Post 234 won 7-6.

By Eric Getzoff/Daily News Correspondent

NORTHBOROUGH — Northborough Legion Post 234 was up four runs after six innings, and its pitchers were dealing.

But Grafton Hill Post 323 stormed back, scoring five runs in the top of the seventh inning, including five base hits with one out, to take a one-run lead.

Northborough had one more chance to either tie or win in the bottom of the seventh, and thanks to pinch-hitter Drew Courtwright, Post 234 won 7-6.

Courtwright was mobbed at second base by his teammates after rocketing a ball into the left-center field gap to score Dan Lis and Matt Maslowski, securing the victory for Northborough. Post 234 is now 5-5, and has won five of its last six games.

Courtwright was on the bench all game until his name was called with two outs, his team down one.

“It feels amazing,” Courtwright said. “I got the opportunity and came through. When you’re on the bench you always have to look for that pinch-hit opportunity, and I got it and hopefully it went through and it did.”

Northborough manager Ken MacDonald said the team’s energy has been much better during this recent stretch — especially on Thursday — compared to what it was during the 0-4 start to the season.

“It was really huge to see the toughness we had today,” said MacDonald. “The kids did a great job battling and coming through with clutch hits there.”

Northborough dominated early on, scoring the game’s first two runs — one on a ground-rule double by Lis and another on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Courtwright (twin brother of Drew).

Not to mention the dominance of starting pitcher Zach Zides, who threw five innings of one-run ball, striking out three and allowing only four hits.

“Zach did a good job at pitching through control problems early on. … He did a good job at keeping us in the game,” said MacDonald.

“My fastball was working for me — the four-seamer, the two-seamer,” said Zides. “My curveball was pretty good. I was locating most of my changeups today.”

But Zides ran into some trouble in the fifth inning when Brendan Desautels singled home Andrew Lavine to trim Northborough’s lead to 2-1.

Northborough stormed back in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring two runs. The first came on a one-out base hit by Lis, and the second on what looked to be the dagger at the time — a two-run home run by Ryan Courtwright to put Northborough on top 4-1.

Northborough was two outs away from victory in the top of the seventh inning when Grafton Hill (2-7) made its push. First came a single by Joe Gemelli, and then four consecutive hits — three singles and two doubles — against Northborough relief pitcher Johnny Kelly to cut Northborough’s lead to one.

Three more hits and two more runs followed for Grafton Hill, those off of Nick Francalancia who relieved Kelly.

Northborough entered the bottom of the seventh inning down one run, its two-game winning streak on the line. A flyout followed by two singles brought up Ryan Courtwright, who was looking for his second home run of the game. But he popped up to second base, leading the way to his brother Drew’s game-winning walk-off double.

“I told them this game is called the Courtwright Game,” said MacDonald.

“I’ve been playing with them forever,” said Zides. “I feel so happy for them. They’re two of my closest friends. It was unbelievable.